The Fallout: The Carter Family Christmas Special: Dec 25th - CHRISTMAS Day
Christmas Day doesn’t end the fallout. It passes it on.
Bobby woke up on the floor with his back screaming at him. Sunlight coming through the windows. The smell of coffee.
He sat up. Bella was already awake, sitting on the couch with a mug in her hands, staring at the Christmas tree.
"Morning," Bobby said.
"Morning."
Wallace was still passed out on the other couch, mouth open, snoring. Wanda was in the recliner, curled up under a blanket.
"What time is it?" Bobby asked.
"Eight thirty."
"The boys?"
"Still asleep."
Bobby got up, joints popping, and headed to the kitchen. Poured himself coffee. Came back and sat next to Bella.
They sat in silence for a while. Just the two of them and the Christmas tree and the quiet house.
"I can't believe we did all this," Bella said softly.
"Yeah."
"It looks good though."
"It does."
More silence. Then Bella: "Merry Christmas, Bobby."
"Merry Christmas."
By 9am everyone was awake. The boys came stumbling out of the back room, rubbing their eyes. Brandon first, then Billy right behind him.
"Merry Christmas," Wanda said to them.
"Merry Christmas," they mumbled back.
"Y'all hungry?" Wallace asked.
"Yeah."
They raided the leftovers from last night. Heated up plates of food. Made it work as breakfast. Nobody cared. It was Christmas.
They sat around the living room eating. The six of them. Quiet at first. Still waking up.
Then Bobby remembered. "We got presents."
"Presents?" Brandon perked up.
"Yeah. We bought stuff yesterday. Before everything." Bobby got up and disappeared into one of the bedrooms. Came back with bags.
They'd all done it. Bought something small for each other before the world fell apart. Nobody had mentioned it. But they'd all done it.
Bella had gotten Bobby a new wallet. Wallace had gotten Wanda a scarf. Wanda had gotten Bella some earrings. Bobby had gotten Wallace a book he'd mentioned months ago.
For the boys, there were video games and Lego sets and things they'd asked for back when life was normal.
They opened gifts. Said thank you. It felt strange and normal at the same time.
When the gifts were done, they sat there in the wrapping paper mess, drinking coffee, letting the morning settle.
"You remember the Christmas Mom made that turkey that was still frozen in the middle?" Wallace said suddenly.
Bella laughed. "Oh my God, yes. Dad tried to cut it and the knife just bounced off."
"And she cried," Wanda added. "She actually cried because dinner was ruined."
"But Dad ordered pizza," Bobby said. "And we ate pizza on Christmas and Mom laughed about it by the end of the night."
"She always laughed by the end," Wallace said quietly.
They kept going. More stories. More memories. The good ones. The ones that didn't hurt as much.
Bobby told the story about the year Dad dressed up as Santa and the beard caught fire from the candles.
Bella told the story about Mom teaching her to make sweet potato pie and accidentally using salt instead of sugar.
Wanda remembered the Christmas they got snowed in and couldn't go anywhere, so they just played board games for three days straight.
Wallace remembered Dad teaching him to ride his bike on Christmas morning in the empty church parking lot.
The boys listened. Asked questions. Laughed at the funny parts.
For an hour, maybe two, it felt okay. Like they were a family again. Like nothing had gone wrong.
Then Bobby said it.
"They tried to find Derek and Michelle, you know. Fifteen years ago."
The room got quiet.
"I keep thinking about that," Bobby continued. "They tried. They wanted to know if their kids were okay. If they were happy. And the agency couldn't help them. Or wouldn't."
"Do you think Derek and Michelle know?" Wanda asked. "That they're out there? That Willis and Brenda died?"
"I don't know," Bella said.
"Maybe they do," Wallace said. "Maybe they're sitting somewhere right now wondering about the people who gave birth to them."
"Or maybe they don't care," Bobby said. "Maybe they moved on and never looked back."
"I'd want to know," Wanda said quietly. "If I were them, I'd want to know."
Nobody had an answer for that.
"The house is gone too," Wallace said. "The reverse mortgage. We get nothing."
"I don't even care about that anymore," Bella said. "I just wish we'd known. I wish they'd told us."
"They were ashamed," Bobby said. "That's why they didn't tell us. They thought we'd judge them."
"We wouldn't have," Wanda said.
"Maybe," Bobby said. "Or maybe we would have. I don't know anymore."
The conversation drifted. Circled around the secrets. Around Derek and Michelle and the choices their parents made and the things they'd never know.
Brandon and Billy were still sitting there. Listening to all of it. Processing.
Then, without anyone noticing, they slipped away.
Brandon pushed open the back door and stepped out onto the porch. Billy followed.
It was cold. Not freezing, but cold enough that their breath came out in little clouds. The sun was bright. The yard was empty.
They sat down on the steps.
For a long time, neither of them said anything.
Then Billy: "Do you miss them?"
"Yeah," Brandon said. "Do you?"
"Yeah."
More silence.
"Everyone's so mad at each other," Billy said. "Why?"
Brandon shrugged. "I don't know. Grown up stuff."
"It's stupid."
"Yeah."
Billy picked at the wood on the step. "Thanksgiving was supposed to be fun. Everyone was supposed to come. But nobody did."
"I know."
"Why didn't they?"
"Because they were fighting."
"About what?"
Brandon didn't answer right away. He was thinking. Trying to figure out how to say it. Or if he should say it at all.
"Billy," he finally said. "I gotta tell you something."
Billy looked at him. "What?"
Brandon stared at his hands. "Your dad. Brad. He's not your real dad."
Billy didn't move. Didn't speak. Just stared at Brandon.
"My dad told me," Brandon continued. "After everything at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He said Brad isn't your real dad. That your mom had you with someone else."
Billy's face didn't change. He just kept staring.
"I'm sorry," Brandon said. "I thought you should know."
Billy looked away. Stared out at the yard. His jaw was tight. His hands were clenched.
"I already knew," Billy said quietly.
Brandon looked at him. "You did?"
"I heard my mom crying about it. She was on the phone with someone. She said Brad wasn't my real dad. That if he found out, that everything would be ruined."
"You knew this whole time?"
"Yeah."
They sat there. The cold biting at their faces. The sun shining like nothing was wrong.
"I don't want to be like my dad," Billy said. Not Brad. His dad. Whoever that was. Whoever he'd never met.
"Which dad?" Brandon asked.
"Both of them."
Brandon nodded slowly. "I don't want to be like my dad either."
"Your dad cheated on your mom, right?"
"Yeah."
"That's messed up."
"Yeah."
More silence. Then Billy: "Everyone's so messed up."
"Yeah."
"Do you think we'll grow up and stop talking like them?" Billy asked. "Like Grandma and Grandpa used to do? Not talking for years?"
Brandon thought about that. "I don't know. Maybe."
"I don't want to."
"Me neither."
Billy looked at Brandon. "We should make a promise. That we won't."
"A promise?"
"Yeah. That no matter what happens, we won't stop talking. We won't be like them."
Brandon considered this. Then he nodded. "Okay. I promise."
"Me too."
They sat there, two kids trying to figure out how not to become their parents.
Then Brandon said: "Someone called Uncle Wallace gay. I don't know what that means."
"Me neither," Billy said.
"But everyone was mad about it."
"Grown ups get mad about everything."
"Yeah." Brandon paused. "Do you think I'll be gay?"
Billy shrugged. "I don't know. Does it matter?"
"I don't think so."
"Then probably not."
Brandon nodded. That made sense to him.
"I'm never getting married," Brandon said suddenly.
"Why not?"
"Because marriage makes people mean. Look at all of them. They all got married and now they're all getting divorced and everyone's fighting."
"That's true," Billy said.
They sat in silence again. Processing everything. The weight of it. The impossibility of it.
Then Brandon's voice got quieter. "I found some stuff on my daddy's computer one day."
Billy looked at him. "You did?"
"Yeah. It was all kinds of stuff. Weird looking stuff."
"Wow. What was it?"
Brandon shook his head. "I can't tell you. It's a secret."
Billy thought about that. Then: "I'll tell you a secret if you tell me."
Brandon looked at him. "Okay."
"I found a lot of money in our house one day," Billy said.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Is it still there?"
"Yes. My mom doesn't know. But I saw my dad, or the not my real dad, he hid it behind a secret wall. When the people came to our house for not my real dad, I thought they would find the money. But it's still there."
"Wow."
Billy looked at Brandon. "Now you tell me."
Brandon stared at his hands. "I saw all kinds of grown up stuff on my dad's computer. Women and men. They were dressed up with weird looking clothes on. And some didn't have anything on sometimes."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I saw a lot of pictures of my dad and this person together."
They sat in silence for a moment.
"The next time you come over to our house," Billy said, "I'll show you the money."
"Okay." Brandon paused. "The next time you come over to my house, I'll show you where I bury some of the neighbors' pets."
Billy looked at him. "What do you mean?"
"For fun. I catch some of the neighbors' pets and have some fun with them."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"But why are they buried?"
Brandon's voice got even quieter. "I don't know. Sometimes I get mad and... I don't know. So I bury them."
Billy didn't say anything for a long moment. Then: "Cool. Will you show me?"
"Yeah. But it's our secret."
"Okay."
They stood up. Brandon held out his hand to Billy.
Billy took it and stood up too.
They hugged. Not the kind of hug kids usually give. A real one. The kind that meant something. The kind that sealed everything they'd just shared.
When they pulled apart, Brandon said: "We're gonna be okay."
"You think so?"
"Yeah. We're not them."
"No," Billy agreed. "We're not."
They walked off the porch together. Into the yard. Side by side. Two kids carrying secrets they shouldn't have to carry, making promises they might not be able to keep.
But trying anyway.
Inside, the four siblings stood at the window. Watching.
They'd seen the serious faces. The intense conversation. The way Brandon said something that made Billy's whole body tense. The way Billy processed it. The pain that crossed his face even from this distance.
"Oh no," Bella whispered. She knew. She didn't know how, but she knew.
They watched the boys keep talking. Watched the gestures. Watched the way they leaned toward each other like they were the only two people in the world.
Then they saw the hug.
Real. Long. Meaningful.
When the boys pulled apart, they started walking. Toward the back of the yard. Together.
"They're going to need therapy after this holiday," Bobby said quietly.
"I bet we fucked their heads up pretty badly," Wallace added.
Wanda's voice was barely a whisper. "We never thought about the kids. What we put them through."
Bella said nothing. Just watched her son walk away with his cousin. Watched him carry the truth she'd tried so hard to hide.
The boys got smaller in the distance. Two figures in the winter sunlight. Walking together.
Then they disappeared around the corner of the yard.
The four adults stood there. In their parents' house. Around the tree they'd put up together. Surrounded by the wreckage of their lives.
They'd destroyed their marriages. They'd destroyed each other. They'd found out their parents had been keeping secrets for forty years. They'd buried those parents. They'd fought. They'd screamed. They'd broken everything.
And through it all, two kids had been watching. Learning. Deciding who they wanted to be.
But they had no idea what those kids had actually learned.
No idea what secrets they carried.
No idea how deep the damage went.
"We have to do better," Bella said. Barely a whisper.
Bobby looked at her. Then back out the window at the empty yard.
"We won't."
The words hung in the air.
Nobody argued.
The Christmas tree lights glowed behind them. The house was warm. The sun was shining.
And somewhere out in that yard, two boys were walking away from all of it. Together.
Carrying secrets darker than any of the adults could imagine.
Making promises their parents never kept.
Becoming something none of them could see coming.
END OF PART 14: CHRISTMAS DAY
THE END OF THE FALLOUT: THE CARTER FAMILY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
